I just got it this past weekend and I’m completely in love with this album. I love Gershwin in general and Miles’ rendition of his opera (is it ‘opera’) is absolutely brilliant. I can’t stop listening to it.
IMHO
Moe: Try “Sketches of Spain”. It’s damn incredible. Especially on a rainy Sunday afternoon with a good cigar.
Oh yeah. Miles Davis is the best.
Get Sketches of spain, kind of blue, and bitches brew.
If you don’t already.
Add “Birth of the Cool” to that.
Gerry Mulligan released a version called “Rebirth of the Cool” after Miles died as a tribute album. Awesome.
I am definitely going to get Sketches of Spain very soon.
Luna - I am a huge fan of the fusion stuff and have been for some time so I certainly own Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way, Live at the Fillmore, plus have a bootleg video of one of the live at the Fillmore shows. I actually own the 4 cd re-release of Bitches Brew which has 2 CDs worth of unreleased material from those sessions, invluding some sitar and tabla, though the names of those musicians escape me at the moment. Great stuff.
Kind of Blue I love as well.
Birth of the Cool might be a bit difficult for me to listen to. I’ve heard it, but I dunno, I may have to try it again. That’s from the 40’s no? My jazz interests usually start from early 60’s, maybe late 50’s, in general. But I’m getting more open to earlier stuff as I continue to listen and learn.
Moe - yeah
Grendel - yeah
lunapark - yeah
rundro - yeah
Just to warn ya’ll, though, there are a few Miles Davis haters on the board. Check out the “Jazz is Crap” thread in the pit awhile back.
I remember it well. I especially remember your entrance into the discussion: IIRC “I’m…trying…to…breathe”
Don’t ask me why I remember that. It just cracked me up, because it’s exactly what I was thinking.
Miles Davis Rocks! One of the best saxophonists out there playing some of the best classical crossover music out there. I love you Porgy. It is kind of weird that you bring this up since I have been singing “Nice Work If You Can Get It” most of the day here. I love that tune. I also love “I love you Porgy” and “Bess, you is my woman.”
Porgy and Bess is an opera. You had that correct. Incidently, it was the first piece that hit the mainstream that featured all black characters as the leads. Some say it may have been Carmen since Carmen has often been played by black women in the past to show her dark Gypsy heritage. This however features the black people as black and won great acclaim by everyone who saw it.
HUGS!
Sqrl
I am so stupid I typed saxophone when I saw sax face show up. I can’t believe I didn’t proofread enough to type TRUMPET. STUPID ME! TRUMPET!!! TRUMPET!!!
SqrlCub hangs his head in shame.
Sqrl
Figured I come back and post a link to that thread Sax mentioned. Just watch Uke go:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=7756&pagenumber=1
Oh and Sqrl, its “I loves You, Porgy”
Now pick that head up, discard that useless shame! We’re all jazz fans here.
Not to hijack the thread…but if you love trumpet, give Chet Baker a whirl. Man, I can listen to him for hours.
If you like Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain, allow me to respectfully point out that you’re primarily enjoying the work of Gil Evans, rather than Miles Davis.
And if you love trumpet and want to try some amazing instrumentalists who never got to be famous on a Miles Davis/Chet Baker level, here’s an incomplete list of my favorites in no particular order:
Harry “Red” Allen
Roy Eldridge
Johnny Coles
Donald Byrd
Harry “Sweets” Edison
Bobby Hackett
Buck Clayton
Fats Navarro
Shorty Rogers
Ruby Braff
Dupree Bolton
Conte Candoli
Thad Jones
Art Farmer
Nat Adderley
Sqrl - that’s what I figured, too. I had no idea I had that power. WOW.
Anyway, not to hijack, but I tried calling you last night. I’m going to be in DC from Thursday to Sunday. Let’s hang out!
Oh, and listen to some jazz.
Thanks Uke, I knew it was just a matter of time before you showed up, but could you narrow down the list a tad, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed.
BTW, I’m not familar with most of those names but if they’re not the most contemporary in your collection, I’d much rather here about the what’s-happening-now guys.
Sax, have good time in DC. I’ll talk to you when you get back. (BTW a shame you’re not going a week later, I’m gonna be in MD next weekend)
EEEEEEVE!!! You back from Seattle yet?
Here, I’ll hold Moe’s arms, you can have the first crack with the baseball bat.
Oh no. Whadisay?
Oh my, I just realized. :o I used “here” rather than “hear”.
Silly me.
…y’all need to go and get The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings then,the Gil Evans stuff, just wonderful… you get not only the orig. recordings (Miles Ahead , Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain and Quiet Nights) in little mini reproductions of the LP jackets and a book of background info but you also get a very comprehensive collection of alternate takes and studio chatter and overdubbing takes and and flubs and the like…worth every $ it costs, I have had these since they came out in 96 and I return to them again and again, always fresh.
Nah, I don’t give a shit about misspellings or typos or whatever, as long as the post is semi-literate.
It was the use of “what’s-happening-now guys.” It reeks of
“Oh, boy, I love Joshua Redman, because he wears a shiny suit and Warner Bros. is pouring a ton of ad/promo money into his career and HEY! He just blew a HIGH NOTE on his saxophone, I gotta pump my fist in the air like that’s a really hard thing to do with a saxophone!!! Lester Young? Who’s he? His hat looks funny! He looks like my grandpa! He can’t POSSIBLY have anything relevant to say to ME because I’m a child of the 21st century and he was some old drunk from the 1930s! Isn’t it great to be young and hip and swinging? MY generation must be the first one to ever have felt that way!”
I invoked Eve because she’s even pricklier about this sort of thing than I am, except mostly for movies.
Semi-Hijack: Speakin’ of old school musicalgeniuses… Anybody seen Sweet and Lowdown???